Sunday, February 19, 2012

A current event

U.S. military researchers have had great success using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)– in which they hook you up to what’s essentially a 9-volt battery and let the current flow through your brain. After a few years of lab testing, they’ve found that they can more than double the rate at which people learn a wide range of tasks such as object recognition, maths skills, and marksmanship.

So says Better Living Through Electrochemistry by Sally Adee, an exploration of the captivating idea that electricity, not caffeine, energy drinks or stimulating drugs, is a great way to wake up and focus your brain.

Adee gave it a try:

When the nice neuroscientists put the electrodes on me, the thing that made the earth drop out from under my feet was that for the first time in my life, everything in my head finally shut the (heck) up...I felt clear-headed and like myself, just sharper. Calmer. Without fear and without doubt...There were no unpleasant side effects. The bewitching silence of the tDCS lasted, gradually diminishing over a period of about three days.

Sounds almost too easy and pleasant, what?

The thing I wanted most acutely for the weeks following my experience was to go back and strap on those electrodes...What would a world look like in which we all wore little tDCS headbands that would keep us in a primed, confident state free of all doubts and fears? Wouldn’t you wear the (life) out of that cap? I certainly would. I’d wear one at all times and have two in my backpack ready in case something happened to the first one.

In Zap your brain into the zone: Fast track to pure focus, an article by Adee in this month's New Scientist (UK), contends that "zapping your brain with a small current seems to improve everything from mathematical skills to marksmanship," and shows promise in putting people into a state of creativity known as flow -- "that feeling of effortless concentration that characterises outstanding performance."

Application of electrical currents to modify brain function is a very old technique, mentioned more than 200 years ago...Initial studies in humans aimed at treating or modifying psychiatric diseases, particularly depression....

In the last few decades, tDCS was re-evaluated and shown to reliably modulate human cerebral cortical function inducing focal, prolonged but yet reversible shifts of cortical excitability....

Extensive animal and human evidence and theoretical knowledge indicate that the currently used tDCS protocols are safe. However, knowledge about the safe limits of duration and intensity of tDCS is still limited....Seizures do not appear to be a risk for healthy subjects. However, this may not be true for patients with epilepsy.

Something for nothing? Not quite. Adee writes:

Machines that provide transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) cost £5000 (roughly $7,900) a pop, and their makers often sell them only to researchers.

That hasn't stopped a vibrant community of DIY tDCS enthusiasts from springing up. Their online forums are full of accounts of their home-made experiments, including hair-curling descriptions of blunders that, in one case, left someone temporarily blind.

Wikipedia has flagged its entry on tDCS for possible lack of objectivity, but it explains the idea in clear language.

How big an ethical/legal problem this might become will depend on the magnitude of the boost tDCS provides and, of course, the safety issues that would arise if and when everyday people start hooking themselves up to thinking caps that actually work.

Posted at 08:54:33 PM

Comments

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Hmmm, interesting... though I'm not so sure I'd want to rig myself up to a homemade version of the device; seems a little too similar to an electric chair.

I have had an experience that makes believe in the theory though; I was once nearly struck by lightning (a few meters away, but I could feel the charge) and for the next 2-3 days I did feel amazingly clear-headed... although also somewhat deaf. I had always attributed the heightened concentration to the loss of my hearing, but maybe it was at least partially caused by the electricity.

It sounds like something out of a B-movie sci fi concept...like I Am Legend (Will Smith) where the world gradually realizes the amazing new treatment is actually turning everyone into vampires and it's too late to stop.

At least in the world of fiction, there always seems to be a catch. Then again, my bespectacled self is still waiting for the other shoe to drop on the folks who got Lasik 15 years ago. I'm not letting anyone near my eyes with a laser until I see the longterm effects on the other guinea pigs.

Wow. A device that would free me of doubts and fears? My first thought was sign me up when this becomes commercially available. My second thought is that I'm afraid if I experienced this kind of magic during the second part of my life I'd spin into a terrible depression, mourning all the years I had lost to not feeling this way.

Then again, the device would remove even that fear, I suppose. Yeah, go ahead. Sign me up.

Seriously, this seems dangerous in certain situations. driving a car for example. I think a bit of doubt is a good thing if it forces you to look twice before making that left turn, lane change on a highway, etc..

--ZORN REPLY -- Addicts? I almost spit out my coffee when I read this.

GARRY REPLY: There have been experiments where some women have had a set of wires inserted into either their brain or their spinal columns & they were able to press a button to bring themselves to orgasm.
The experimenters usually has to disconnect them as some of them never stopped stimulating themselves!
Most when interviewed after said they didn't want to stop & had no other needs, such as food or water.

ZORN REPLY -- Really? Or have you been watching "Sleeper" on cable TV?

What’s the possible harm over long term use? How would this not be just as psychologically addictive as chemical remedies? What would the fallout be if you suddenly discontinued this course of therapy? Can anyone be trusted to self-treat using specifically designed caps?

There are way too many questions for this new form of shock therapy once forced on criminals and the mentally ill.

I have used transcranial direct current stimulation for treatment-resistant chronic pain and depression for 4 years. tDCS provides benefit when conventional treatments are inadequate. 500 published studies attest to the effectiveness and safety of tDCS -there are literally no side effects.
A small current either facilitates or inhibits neurons underlying the electrodes, depending on the polarity of the electrodes. Depending on the areas of the brain stimulated, tDCS can enhance learning, improve coordination, decrease craving, relieve depression, control seizures, reduce chronic pain (including migraine, complex regional pain and neuralgia) and improve recovery from stroke. I believe tDCS will also provide a non-pharmacological treatment for ADHD and autism. Appreciate that tDCS will not cure or eliminate symptoms completely, but it provides a safe, inexpensive adjuvant treatment, even at this stage of developement.

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